Not LAX - for good
by JulietxJames
Summary: AU turn of "The Incident": What would have happened if the nuke had went off by itself? Would Sawyer have been left with less grief and more joy?


**A/N: Hey there, dear readers. Thanks for checking this fic out. It's my first fanfic for Lost. I'm a huge fan of James (Sawyer) & Juliet, and after finishing LOST a month ago I decided to write an AU turn of the S05 end/S06 beginning. Juliet's death crushed me completely and Sawyer's grief just made it worst. I wanted to explore what could have happened if things had turned out a bit differently.  
Well, I hope you'll enjoy! Please let me know what you think.**

* * *

They exchanged looks, locked eyes, as Jack let go of the bomb. It was like everything around the stopped. Teeth clenched together, Juliet closed her eyes, terrified, waiting for the moment to explode. It seemed like a decade passed and nothing happened. Feeling a desperate urge to open her eyes and look for clues to what went wrong, she did. She was faced with James hurting eyes before everything turned white.

* * *

He woke up in moisty grass with ringing ears and double-vison. He spent several minutes lying still, trying to figure out where the heck he was, when the heck he was, and what had just happened. He was all confused and memories of soring sky-blue eyes flushed his head and vision.

 _Juliet_

Where was she? Immediately he stood up and was faced with dizziness and headache. He put a hand to his head, pressed it hard against his forehead and let a groan out as peered around in the dark jungle. Jack immediately hit his eyes and made him snarl. What a moron. They were clearly stuck on the island and nowhere near LAX. Saint Jack's plan had failed miserably, and James couldn't figure out whether to slap him or thank him. If the plan hadn't worked, then Juliet would be-

"Hey! Is anyone there?!"

A yell of a familiar woman's voice reached his ears. Not even two seconds later, Kate emerged from behind some bushes with Miles following behind.

"Sawyer!" Kate exclaimed, narrowing the distance between them.

"You two okay?" is all he could manage to ask.

"Just fine, boss," Miles reported.

"You've seen-"

Kate cut herself off as she found who she was looking for in the grass: Jack.  
As Kate tried to shook Jack awaken, James walked up to Miles.

"You haven't seen her, have you?" James murmured.

"Nope. Just bumped into Kate. Seems we were sent back to the jungle."

"Well, no shit there, Sherlock," James snarled "You used a loupe to unravel that?"

"I'm just noting, we aren't where we wanna be, okay smartass?"

"Jack-ass' plan didn't work out, what a fucking surprise. Now let's stop babbling and start looking for people."

Miles nodded and joined him when he set off to find others.

"She can't be far from here," James pointed out "She was only a few feet away from me when the bomb went off."

"Maybe we should-"

Cut off by someone else's movement in the grass, the two stopped to peer around.

"Hey, I think-"

"Ssh, Enos!"

They stood still and heard an indistinct mumble from across the area.  
James followed the mumble and within seconds he found Juliet tossing and turning in the high grass.

"Hey there," he quickly spat out, as he bent down to check if she was all right.

Her eyes were still closed as he reached out to cup her face. He didn't think he'd ever been this thrilled to see her.

"Juliet," he whispered, hovering over her, checking if she was breathing.

"Is she okay?" Miles asked from behind.

"I think so," James answered, running a hand over her forehead "Feeling a bit warm though."

"Well, we're _only_ on a tropical island."

"Cut it, Enos."

He was too relieved about her presence to be concerned about a mild fever. He let a smile cross his lips, as she let out another indistinct mumble.

"Time to wake up, sleeping beauty," he said, shaking her carefully.

Slowly, her eyes opened to look right into his.

"James," she huskily whispered with a weak smile.

"Hey," he whispered back, pulling her up in his arms. She rested her head on his chest and relaxed.

"I'm gonna look for others, okay?" Miles said.

"Yeah, you do that. We'll stay here for now."

Miles nodded acceptingly, and turned to walk away.

"Where are we?" Juliet asked confused a few seconds after Miles had left.

"We're still here, on the island."

He saw how her eyes closed for a second before looking at him again with glassy eyes.

"It didn't work," she finally whispered. A tear dropped from her eyes.

"Hey - don't you worry about that," he defensively said, drying the tear away  
"You're here, with me…I wouldn't want it any other way," he continued.

She searched his eyes.

"I wanted you to be able to go home," she admitted.

"I ain't going nowhere without you, you hear me? _You_ are my home."

 _Boy that sounded cheesy,_ James thought to himself. But it was the truth.

Another tear escaped her eyes. This one came with a smile.

"I'm sorry," she said.

"What are you apologizing for, Blondie?"

"I shouldn't have changed my mind. It was acting like an imbecile."

"Don't say that. It wasn't your fault. It's mine. I never should have wasted a glare on Kate. I don't know what I was thinking. I wasn't really thinking at all."

"Still… that shouldn't be reason enough for me to want to throw away the best 3 years of my life," she sadly noted.

"We were both acting without our brains, alright? But I forgive you."

"You shouldn't. We could just as easily have ended up like Jack said; different places and strangers to each other's presence."

"What happened, happened. Luckily for us, _**that**_ didn't happen. We're in this together. Got each other's backs, remember?"

There was a short moment of silence before she spoke.

"I love you, James. I love you so much," she whispered into his chest.

"I love you more, Juliet. You have no idea," he whispered back, voice thick with tears.

They sat there for a while, her head resting on his chest and his arms around her, staring into the dark.

"James?"

"Yeah?"

"I have to tell you something. It's really, really important."

"You tell me," he said, eyes fixed on her as he brushed a strand of hair away from her face.

There was a pause. He wondered if he should repeat himself, but she beat him to it.

"I'm pregnant."

"You're what?!" he asked stunned, forcing her to look at him.

"I'm sorry, I should've told you. It just never seemed like the right time."

It wasn't a good enough excuse, she knew that, but it was the only one she had.

"How long have you known about this?" he asked, obviously still in shock.

"Since the day…They returned," she sadly chuckled.

He sighed. She was hurting over this and so was he.

"Perfect timing," he ironically responded.

"I know," she murmured.

"I'm really sorry," he sighed.

"For what?"

"For us being in this situation. You should never have been put through half the stuff we've been through the last week if I had known."

"But you didn't know. That's not your fault, that's mine."

"No. You shouldn't have been put through it either way. And you wouldn't have…if I had stayed far away from Kate and co."

"You can't blame yourself for trying to help out friends."

"I should have been there for you. To hell with them and "live together, die alone". They can take care of themselves."

"Clearly they couldn't or can't. They would have been screwed without you. Sayid probably would have been killed for instance."

"It wouldn't have mattered. He's out there bleeding to death anyway."

"Hey, look at me," she said, catching his attention.

"You did the best you could in your situation. I don't blame you for that. Neither should you."

"I genuinely hope I didn't cause harm for this little fella," he quietly said, laying a hand on her belly.

"I suppose time will tell," she answered in the same tone of voice.

He looked at her and expected to receive a cold hearted expression, but he didn't.  
Instead, he saw compassion just before she leaned up to meet his lips in a reconciling kiss.


End file.
